“…the God of all grace, who called you
to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and
establish you.” (1 Peter 5:10b)

Why does a church exist?

Why does this church
exist? What sets it apart from other churches?

These are important
questions that have a significant answer. Grace Bible Church exists to shepherd
God’s people, by God’s grace, and for God’s glory. Every aspect of ministry —
worship, instruction, fellowship, and outreach — is designed to reach the
unbelieving for Christ and mature the believing in Christ by the gracious
empowerment of the Holy Spirit and the gracious administering of the Scriptures,
so that the character of God is revealed and the majesty of God is
upheld.

Undergirding that philosophy are a dozen
core values that we are committed to upholding. These are non-negotiables that
must be present in whatever ministry we undertake. These Biblical values
are:

• We Believe in the Supremacy of God Above All Things • We
Believe in the Sufficiency of Scripture • We Believe in Transformation•
We Believe in Grace• We Believe in Evangelism• We Believe in the
Discipleship• We Believe in the Church • We Believe in the Power and
Priority of Forgiveness and Reconciliation• We Believe in the Priority of a
Personal Walk with God• We Believe in the Value of Problems• We Believe
in Marriage and Family• We Believe in “Every Member Ministry” — Cultivating
Our Relationship with Other Believers

Of course the question then is,
“How do you articulate all these truths into one succinct, clear, guiding
statement?”

To that end, we
have synthesized those Biblical, core values into one statement that provides
direction for all the various ministries of the church: Grace Bible Church
exists to shepherd God’s people by God’s grace for God’s
glory.

Shepherding God’s People

Shepherding is the
fundamental activity of the church. It is descriptive of caring for and watching
over God’s people. In the Old Testament, God is the true shepherd of His people
Israel (Ps. 23); in the New Testament, Christ is the Good and Great Shepherd of
those who trust in Him (Jn. 10:1-6), who then gives the task of shepherding His
people to His church (1 Pt. 5:1ff).

When we talk about shepherding,
we’re talking about taking great pains to do all we can to mature, nurture,
stimulate, encourage and protect the faith in Christ of others. And we mean that
we do all we can to equip believers to proclaim the gospel they believe so that
unbelievers will trust in Christ as their Savior from sin.

By
God’s Grace

This is no small task. How is it that unbelievers are
reached so that they trust Christ, and believers are matured so that they live
with and for Christ?

The ultimate provision that allows us to shepherd
God’s people is God’s divine enablement. In our own strength, we are incapable
of standing in the place of God to meet the needs of others. It is only as we
avail ourselves of the gracious strength of Christ that we are equipped to
shepherd others. There is a temptation to want to save and mature people
ourselves. We can’t. It is His power and His work (1 Pt. 5:10). But in His grace
He has chosen to use clay (ordinary) people so that He is glorified all the more
by what is produced through those people (2 Cor. 4:7).

And the message we
carry also is grace — after all, God is the God of all grace (1 Pt. 5:10), and
all we communicate and do, we do with graciousness (Col. 4:6). Our empowerment
and our message are rooted in the same source: the grace of God.

This
message of grace is contained explicitly in the Scriptures. So the primary tool
we use in shepherding God’s people is the Word of God. Regular feeding from the
Bible is the means by which people are brought to spiritual maturity (Col. 3:16;
2 Pet. 1:3). There is one tool to teach, reprove, correct and train in
righteousness (i.e., produce maturity) — the
Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Jesus Himself prayed for this:

"Sanctify them in the
truth; Your Word is truth" (Jn. 17:17).

For God’s
Glory

The ultimate end of our shepherding and of our very lives is
the glory of God. When we say that we live for the glory of God, we are simply
affirming that we recognize that God is supreme above all other things in life,
and because of that, our central function in life is to live so that others
might also see His worthiness and value. Everything we do is done with a view to
revealing and praising the true nature and character of God. And everything we
do is done in subordination of our will and desires to His.

One way that
we reveal God’s character is through our praise. To say that we serve others for
the glory of God is to say that we serve others so that they and we both will
find our hearts filled with wonder and praise and joy and delight in the perfect
excellencies of all His attributes. It is this for which we are made — to
glorify (praise and delight in) the wonder of God who made us.

For Grace Bible Church to Shepherd God’s
People by God’s Grace, for God’s Glory, is to have as its central focus a
passion to reveal the nature and character of God in everything that it does.
All that is done must pass the test of three questions:

• Will this
shepherd (provide Biblical care for) God’s people?• Is this done by the
power of grace and with the message of grace?• Is this done for the ultimate
purpose of glorifying God?

To that end, everything that is done in
corporate worship, in teaching and discipleship, in proclaiming the gospel, in
caring for the needy, in counseling the weak and in stimulating loving
fellowship is done with a view to revealing the greatness of God’s majesty.
Ministry, and all of life, is and always shall be just as the Reformers said:
Soli Deo Gloria (“glory to God alone”).